Francis X. Suarez is the current mayor of Miami, Florida. Suarez is a moderate member of the Republican party. He recently also presided over the United States Conference of Mayors. His term ended earlier this year.
For quite some time, there had been speculation about Suarez's potential on a national level. At first, pundits thought he could be a pick for vice president. Suarez eventually indicated that he would prefer to run for president himself. He has now made that theoretical campaign a reality.
Files paperwork to run for president of the United States
Francis Suarez is a candidate for U.S. president. Suarez is the third Floridian to enter the race for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination. Following ex-President Donald Trump and current Governor Ron DeSantis.
Trump and DeSantis are highly controversial figures revered by the party's hard right. Considered more of a centrist, Suarez has previously clashed with them. He openly opposed DeSantis' initial gubernatorial election in 2018. As well as Trump's 2020 re-election bid.
Suarez was first elected mayor of Miami in a thorough landslide in 2017. He became the first native of the city to be elected as its mayor. As well as the first Miami mayor not to be a Cuban immigrant since Democrat Stephen P.
Clark. Suarez was re-elected in 2021, once again in a dominating fashion.
Suarez was first elected to a political office in 2009. That year, he won a seat on the Miami City Commission. He would be re-elected to the Commission on two occasions.
He's a graduate of Miami's Immaculata-LaSalle High School. Afterwards, he obtained a degree in finance from Florida International University.
This was followed by an additional degree from the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law. Suarez is a real estate attorney by trade.
Francis is married to Gloria Fonts Suarez. They have two children.
Is a member of a political family
Francis Suarez's father, Xavier, was also the mayor of Miami. Xavier did emigrate from Cuba to the United States.
He graduated from high school in Washington, D.C. He later obtained degrees from Villanova University and Harvard University.
Unlike his son, the elder Suarez is a member of the Democratic Party. He first served as mayor from 1985 to 1993. Xavier later held the office again briefly from 1997 to 1998. He made unsuccessful runs for several offices, including trying for mayor again in 2001. But he would win two terms on the Board of Commissioners for Miami-Dade County.
Alex Mooney, Francis' cousin and Xavier's nephew, is a United States House of Representatives member. He was elected from the 2nd District of West Virginia in the state's northern regions. Mooney is currently a candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination in West Virginia's U.S.
Senate race. He'd previously been active in Maryland politics. He was elected to three terms in the Maryland Senate and was chairman of the state chapter of the Republican Party. Mooney was previously a staffer for California U.S. Representative Ed Royce and Maryland U.S. Representative Roscoe Bartlett.
